


marking all the times

by trixstar



Series: Ferdibert Week 2020 [5]
Category: Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: Character Study, Ferdibert Week 2020 (Fire Emblem), M/M, Magic, Past Child Abuse, Spoilers, Time Travel
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-16
Updated: 2020-08-16
Packaged: 2021-03-05 23:28:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,974
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25933651
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/trixstar/pseuds/trixstar
Summary: The smoke settles and Ferdinand is gone. Again. Flames. Ferdinand is gone again."Sunlight," Linhardt mutters dazedly into the stunned silence after, "he came back when the moon rose and was pulled back into the past when the sun rose." He struggles to his feet, reaching for a tattered piece of paper and scribbling furiously.Hubert processes the words.It is decided then that he hates eclipses now.Written for Ferdibert Week Day 6 & 7 Prompts: Sun, Moon, and Time Travel
Relationships: Edelgard von Hresvelg & Hubert von Vestra, Ferdinand von Aegir/Hubert von Vestra, mentioned Dorothea Arnault/Edelgard von Hresvelg
Series: Ferdibert Week 2020 [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1870657
Comments: 10
Kudos: 119
Collections: Ferdibert Week 2020





	marking all the times

**Author's Note:**

> this is the most big brained fic ive ever written i had to do some Thinking for this yes with a capital T so i hope y'all enjoy <3 (also lmao pls dont ask me when this takes place the best answer i can come up with is sometime near the end of the 5th year of the five year timeskip so yeah no dima yet they think he's dead)
> 
> (also kinda played with my writing style here hehe)

It happens on a day when the sun and moon align together, like lovers reuniting after ages of being apart in an action that shakes the world, that plunges it into the darkness they’d felt upon being held apart.

Hubert would rather just call it an eclipse, but Ferdinand’s flowery language has rubbed off on him, ruined him even because, at this point, Hubert could probably wax poetic about the sheen of a horse’s mane after a good grooming. He’d heard Ferdinand do it once. _Twice_. He would rather not hear that whole rant again.

They’re sitting across each other for teatime as usual except they’re out on the terrace today because Ferdinand’s suddenly some kind of astronomer and had heavily insisted on having a front row seat to the fascinating spectacle-to-be.

“Do not look so sour about it, Hubert. I assure you, the view will be worth it,” Ferdinand smiles winningly before taking a sip of coffee. They’d switched today. Coffee for him. Tea for Hubert. To mark the occasion, Ferdinand would insist. Because he felt like it, Hubert would argue.

“Will there even be a view?” Hubert drawls, running his fingers along the saucer of his cup, bored, disinterested, “I was under the impression we wouldn’t be able to see anything at all.”

Ferdinand shakes his head, optimism shining like a star in his smile. “Linhardt said there would be minimal visibility.”

Hubert stares, unimpressed. “Linhardt’s a scholar, not an astronomer.”

Ferdinand pouts. “He could be both.”

Hubert pinches his nose. “Not with that work ethic.”

And Ferdinand laughs. And laughs. And it’s nice as always. Being privy to a sound so mellifluous and warm. Hubert likes Ferdinand’s laugh, despite finding it annoyingly obnoxious within the first few years of knowing him. It’s something that grows on you, he’d realized, after the initial instant of hearing it and thinking _oh, that was nice_ , followed by the inevitable _what_.

“So you _do_ keep tabs on him,” Ferdinand observes, amusement dancing in his eyes. The smug kind. As if he’d just caught Hubert doing something he shouldn’t.

Hubert shrugs. “I keep tabs on everyone. You know this.” Hubert explicitly recalled giving the man a tour of his study. If only to satiate the incessant whining about how disorganized his workspace was. “Stop acting as if my showing concern regarding our comrades’ actions is a rare occurrence.”

“I mean, it used to be.”

“Not anymore.”

Ferdinand smiles like a cat that got the cream. “And I like being reminded of that.”

Hubert rolls his eyes as Ferdinand finishes off his coffee. Hubert made it specially for today, so it pleases him that Ferdinand had taken to it so quickly.

“How much longer?” Hubert asks, checking his pocket watch. He had a million other things to do today. Budget reports, spy recruitment, portrait commissioning, the Minister of the Imperial Household was always busy. Never so much that he'd cancel his and Ferdinand's teatimes though.

Ferdinand leans over to check Hubert's watch in his palms and Hubert represses a sigh. The times he's needed to remind Ferdinand to keep his own watch on his person is endless. "Not for long now," Ferdinand says before looking up at the sky, "see, they are nearly aligned now, Hubert!" 

Hubert follows his gaze. The sun and moon are, in fact, halfway there, the slow darkness covering the table suddenly making sense.

"Take care not to stare at it directly," he warns Ferdinand. Hypocritical of him to do so, considering his eyes are still glued to the the two orbs in the sky.

He hears the pout in Ferdinand's voice when he speaks. "I am not a child, I know what to do."

"You'd have fooled me."

"Must you always ruin moments like this?"

Hubert shrugs. He had the tendency to. He was _that_ friend who reminded everyone on their birthdays that they were another step closer to death, much to Edelgard's dismay. As his oldest friend, she's been subjected to it the most.

"Oh! It is happening, Hubert! It is happening!" Ferdinand exclaims, an arm extended to the sky, the other lifted over his eyes to shield from much of the harsh light.

Hubert takes one last lingering look at Ferdinand before following, gaze turned at the sky. The eclipse is happening quickly, the moon now nearly completely covering the shape of the sun, just a sliver away from pushing the world into a mild darkness. Hubert's looking forward to it actually. It was a particularly glaring day, some sort of shade would be nice-

There is an explosion across him.

Hubert is thrown back by the force of it. He lands on the floor a few feet away, back making contact with the floor painfully amidst shattered china. The tea set had broken with an ear-splitting sound and the table'd toppled over, Hubert's chair brought down with it. Ferdinand's is completely destroyed, a mess of splintered wood and ash.

And Ferdinand is gone.

On a day when the sun and moon align together, like lovers reuniting after ages of being apart in an action that shakes the world, that plunges it into the darkness they’d felt upon being held apart, Ferdinand _disappears_.

Hubert doesn't even notice that the eclipse is over.

* * *

_Hubert is only four when he’s told that he serves only one purpose. Only four when his parents tell him they don’t love him or each other, that Hubert exists purely because of duty, and that he’d carry the same heavy burden someday soon. All very intimidating things to say to a child, but he’s a von Vestra and he’s expected to take it in stride, so he does. He nods, keeps nodding, lets himself get thrown around by his father under the guise of “training,” and holds back his winces whenever his mother gets a hold of him and a belt. He makes up for it, he always has to. Builds up the strength they expect him to have to prove himself worthy. Of living. Of breathing. Of serving. He practices his magic day and night, starves, deprives himself of sleep if only to bring about the rare upward tilt of his father’s mouth and the gentle caress of his mother's hands._

_Hubert is four when he accidentally sets fire to his curtains on a night his father locks him in his room and hides the key. Four when he bangs on the door in the middle of the night, tears forming in his eyes as smoke fills his lungs. Four when a man with bright orange hair comes crashing through the window, scoops him up, and brings him to safety._

* * *

"Explain it to me again."

Linhardt doesn't even look at him, too busy poring through a book and quill moving at an uncharacteristically brisk pace. "Is it so hard to understand?" 

"It's hard to believe," Hubert says through gritted teeth. He winces when Manuela's healing hands graze over a particularly sore spot on his shoulder, the magic taking its time before numbing the pain. Edelgard puts a hand on his back to calm him.

After getting over the initial shock of the explosion and Ferdinand _vanishing_ , Hubert had entered a state of sheer _panic_. How could he not? Ferdinand had exploded into nothingness in front of him. Disappeared without a single damned trace. Then there was the matter of security. Had the palace been attacked? Had someone managed to get pass all the defenses Hubert had so carefully prepared? (Where was Ferdinand? What happened to him? Was he safe? Was he alive-)

Bernadetta and Petra find him limping through the palace halls mumbling darkly to himself, intense scowl on his face and a mixture of shock and relief on theirs.

They'd brought him to the infirmary swiftly, Manuela and all the other former Black Eagles surprisingly present. They look as if they'd expected his presence when he enters and instantly Hubert knows that he's missing _something_.

And he was right. Unfortunately.

"Ferdinand's been transported back to the past," comes Linhardt's tired voice. "I was experimenting with time travel magic on some objects. He offered me an old brooch of his to test on," he runs a hand through his hair before continuing, "I missed the passage about the effects of the spell being amplified during, surprise, surprise, _eclipses_. And I believe that's what made it so powerful. Powerful enough to not just displace the brooch, but its owner as well."

Hubert runs a hand through his own hair. _Time travel_ magic. As unorthodox as it was rare. Hubert knew little to nothing about it.

"How is that even possible? How could it have connected itself to Ferdinand?"

"Probably the bit about ownership, Hubie," Dorothea pipes up, stepping forward, "I know which brooch Ferdie gave away. He'd had it since our days in the academy. The established connection was probably more than enough to go on," she says thoughtfully, concern dripping in her voice.

Hubert pinches the bridge of his nose. Blast this. "Well, how are we going to get him back?"

"Working on that," Linhardt responds exasperatedly. He tears his eyes away from the book he'd been studying to gaze up at Hubert. "But it's more or less implied that we have to retrieve him manually. If any of this text is to be believed."

Hubert sighs. He pushes Manuela's hands away gently and rises steadily. He knows what has to be done.

"I'll go then."

"What?" Caspar exclaims. "But you're still hurt! We can do i-"

Hubert raises a hand to stop him. "It was only a mild explosion. I'm fine now and only a mage can accomplish this. Otherwise, how are you going to transport yourself back to the present?"

Caspar quiets, unsatisfied scowl on his face. He looked strikingly like a child who'd just been told off by his mother.

"Linhardt is still looking into things and Dorothea knows more about this topic than I do. He'll need her," Hubert continues, "and I believe I have the sufficient knowledge and capacity to control wher- _when_ I land." He looks at Linhardt and Dorothea for confirmation. 

Linhardt nods. So does Dorothea. "That's true. You're more powerful than me, you're better suited for it, Hubie." There's a sort of grief in her tone as the words escape her. Everyone knows how close she and Ferdinand are, it only made sense that she'd want to go after him herself.

He nods at her before turning to Edelgard. "Will you allow me to do this, your majesty?"

She'd been watching the discussion quietly up until that point. Processing information the way she usually did. She meets Hubert's gaze with resolve in her eyes. "I'll allow it, but be careful and make sure you succeed. I can't afford to lose both of you to this."

Hubert bows gratefully. He, more than anyone, knows about how time has treated his lady. He will not let it hurt her again. Or him.

He's going to find Ferdinand.

"Let's get started then."

* * *

_Six, and Hubert meets Edelgard for the very first time. Her lilac eyes are soft and gentle, brown hair tied daintily into two twin tails. Her smile is warm and welcoming which is fitting because they'd essentially welcomed each other into their lives forever. He will serve her until the day he dies. He doesn't have to like it. Or her. He has a duty, he'll carry it out no matter what. But Edelgard makes it easy. Because she turns out to be just as nice as she is pretty. Words genuine and heart kind. He can do this, Hubert thinks. He can do this because Edelgard is good and Hubert has no problem in believing the good. He's needed to be good his whole life, this shouldn't be any more difficult._ _Hubert is six when his eyes shine at even the mention of Edelgard. Six when he dedicates himself to her so readily. Six when he decides to live and die for her._

_Hubert is six when he and Edelgard spot a man spying on them behind a tree in the garden, long orange hair billowing in the wind when the Hresvelg guards finally take notice and proceed to charge at him._

* * *

The von Aegir estate has always been rather gaudy to Hubert. 

He lands amidst the shrubbery behind the house with the grace of a cat, snapping his fingers quickly to make himself invisible. He was at full power as of now, Dorothea and Linhardt saying they'd take care of sending him back. All Hubert had to do was make sure to return.

He'd only been here a few times as a child, surprisingly never once meeting Ferdinand during all those instances. They'd kept them away on purpose. Not his parents, but Ferdinand's. Even then Duke Aegir had been power hungry, using his son as a bargaining chip.

The year is 1170. One year before Edelgard is taken away. They'd sent him here because the date is significant, and it had somehow made sense according to Linhardt's calculations. Something about stars aligning and the time of day. Hubert supposes it would be fitting. Sometime this year, Duke Aegir and a couple of other wretched bastards were going to get an idea, an idea that makes Hubert's blood boil to this very day.

No matter. He cannot afford to get distracted. He needs to find Ferdinand. Make sure he was alive and well. The bastard had promised to take Hubert to the opera, he wasn't going to die before he made good on it. Or before he let Hubert in on the "sacred" coffee beans he'd apparently brought back from Brigid. Or before Ferdinand would take him riding into a particularly scenic route like he said he wou-

...Hubert's finally feeling the grief of it all.

He searches the estate methodically, silent as a mouse and leaving no trace of his presence whatsoever. His knowledge regarding time travel isn't extensive, but everyone knew the golden rule. Don't change things in the past unless you wanted to go back to an altered present. Basic. Logical. You'd be an idiot to interfere with the mechanisms of time.

Hubert does not find Ferdinand in the estate. Well, the Ferdinand he's grown to know anyway. He'd seen an eight-year-old Ferdinand napping in a study and Hubert had only let his gaze linger for a minute before forging onward. He sets off towards Enbarr, stealing a horse and donning a cloak.

He does not find Ferdinand anywhere there either. Even after having searched every damned crevice of the shoddy city and investigating corners that don't even exist yet. No one's seen a man with bright orange hair prancing about the capital. 

His frustration comes to a head when the he sees the sun start to dip low and the sky turn a warm shade of orange. He'd been here for hours, yet even a clue to where Ferdinand had wandered to eluded him. Where else could he have gone if not his own home or the capital?

He pinches his nose, gathering magic in his other hand for the snap that would bring him back to the present. This was the wrong time, he concludes. Ferdinand is some time else and Hubert needed to get back to the present, so they could try again. And again. And again. As many times as it took to find the man.

He shuts his eyes and takes a deep breath before snapping his fingers and letting himself dissipate. When he feels the familiar stone floor of the palace infirmary under his boots, he breathes a sigh of relief.

He does not expect to come face-to-face with Ferdinand when he opens his eyes.

* * *

_Eleven and Edelgard's hair is white and her eyes are empty. They are cold and calculating, reflecting a horror that says she's been through something no one her age- no one at all, for that matter should ever have to go through. She is quieter, more distant which unsettles Hubert because in the months she'd been gone, he'd nearly killed himself with anxiety and concern wondering about her whereabouts. He'd run away once. To try and search for her. But that only resulted in a beating that left him numb for days, his father telling him to simply behave like a good guard dog and wait. And that's the thing, Hubert can do that, he always has. It's his duty and he performs it excellently, but Edelgard is his friend and to sit still while she'd gone missing wouldn't be very fitting of him now, would it?_

_Eleven and Edelgard tells him about what happens in the dark. Eleven and the seeds are planted. Fire rages in his lady's eyes and, like a match, it ignites something in Hubert as well. Eleven and he decides to do bad for the good. Learns the way of the darkness and numbs himself to sentiment and humanity. Eleven and he sends a cloaked man running for gasping at Edelgard's ghastly hair, a brooch clattering down noisily onto the marketplace floor. Hubert does not pick it up._

* * *

"I don't understand, how did you get back?" The fact that _Linhardt_ is asking this distresses Hubert greatly because if even he didn't have a clue about it then who in blazes could?

Ferdinand shrugs, still looking slightly disoriented. He looks like he'd been running and that just doesn't make sense. What the hell could he have been running from in the past? "I do not understand it myself. I am just... suddenly here," Ferdinand says lamely.

He fidgets under Dorothea's critical gaze. Relief had morphed into puzzled frustration quickly at his appearance. "Were you stuck in one moment of time or-"

"Three," Ferdinand cuts her off, "I was transported to one point then another after a while. Then another. Then here."

"Did you notice anything that could have incited the change?" Edelgard chimes in, trying to be helpful in a matter that she had absolutely no expertise in. Hubert appreciates the effort.

Ferdinand scratches his head. Hubert's never seen the man so frazzled in life. The splendor and propriety he usually carried himself with is replaced by confusion and fear. Hubert wishes he could just cast it away. It's not a good look on him. Any expression that involved Ferdinand looking so troubled should cease to exist, in Hubert's humble opinion.

"Oh, let me think," Ferdinand brings a hand to his chin thoughtfully, "I suppose... I lingered around specific people for too long? Is that-"

"Did you talk to anyone?" Hubert blurts out, alarmed. Had Ferdinand been so foolish to tamper with time by interacting with people of the past?

Ferdinand looks taken aback by the tone, but understanding clouds his eyes soon after. He's always caught on quick. "...No. I did not talk to anyone. I do not think I left any traces of disruption." He avoids Hubert's eyes as he speaks. Hubert is puzzled by this.

"Did you notice anything else?" Edelgard prods, eyes searching.

"...It was day in all three instances," Ferdinand murmurs contemplatively, "...I... now that I think about it, I am certain the last thing I saw was the moon rising before I got here."

Hubert doesn't know what to do with the information. Neither does Dorothea, as evidenced by the frown that only grows deeper. Linhardt doesn't respond, but Hubert can see him take note of Ferdinand's words diligently before going back to reading.

The man rubs at his eyes, holding back a yawn as he examines his books harder. They'd been working well into dawn, first to bring Ferdinand back, now to determine _why_ he'd done so and if it was permanent. Hubert in particular, heavily exhausted. Time traveling was no joke. It took a lot out of Hubert just to conjure up the power to return to the present. That combined with the fatigue of looking for Ferdinand in Enbarr in 1170 was not a good combination. He wants nothing more than to rest.

...But Ferdinand had just looked so terrified, clinging onto Hubert before he'd even took stock of his surroundings properly, eyes wide and frantic and, really, how could Hubert focus on anything _but_ him?

Now they're here, still clueless and the first rays of sunlight filtering through the infirmary window. It paints Edelgard in a nice light, sheds more visibility on the exhaustion of Dorothea's and Linhardt's expressions, puts emphasis on Ferdinand's handsome features, currently ruined by the grimac-

An explosion.

Hubert throws himself in front of Edelgard in an instant. Bits of glass marring his face and the wood of a destroyed bed knocking the wind out of him as it came into contact with his stomach and arms. Dorothea had ducked away quickly and Linhardt had summoned a protective bubble over them within the blink of an eye.

 _Ferdinand_. Where was _Ferdinand_ -

The smoke settles and Ferdinand is gone. Again. _Flames_. Ferdinand is gone _again_.

" _Sunlight_ ," Linhardt mutters dazedly into the stunned silence after, "he came back when the moon rose and was pulled back into the past when the sun rose." He struggles to his feet, reaching for a tattered piece of paper and scribbling furiously.

Hubert processes the words.

It is decided then that he _hates_ eclipses now.

* * *

_Eighteen and Hubert is staring up at Garreg Mach with a complicated mix of emotions. Apprehension, suspicion, loathing, anger. He and Edelgard are not just here to learn, they are here to conquer, to destroy what's been so crookedly built. Eighteen and he puts his animosity in check when Rhea welcomes them with open arms, sickeningly "innocent" and oh so saintly. They're going to grow here, to set the foundation. He starts expanding his network, gets his hands on poisonous things, and meets with shady people in even shadier bars. He meets the Black Eagles and regards them with distaste. They are nothing but pawns in the grand scheme of things, he sees no reason to view them as anything more than reluctant allies._

_Hubert is eighteen when he meets the noble brat that is Ferdinand von Aegir and decides he loathes him the most. Eighteen when he realizes the shade of orange von Aegir's hair is strikingly familiar, although he cannot put his finger on why that is. Eighteen and Hubert still has a lot to learn because he never does sense the cloaked man that follows him in and out of the monastery in broad daylight, pitiful eyes and clenched fists muttering to himself about how he shouldn't've had to shoulder all that alone._

* * *

The year is 1178 and Hubert is transported into Garreg Mach inconspicuously.

He knocks out the gatekeeper and takes his place, albeit abandoning the whole gatekeeping aspect. There's no better way to search the monastery than from the inside out. Ferdinand had learned to be stealthy over the years, but even he couldn't find a way to blend in a school where anything unordinary sticks out like a sore thumb.

This is their first year, he realizes when he sees a fifteen-year-old Edelgard and eighteen-year-old _him_ exit a carriage and get ushered towards the archbishop's chambers. How the time _flies_. After a lingering glance at his former self's gangly frame, he sets out to search.

This is what they know now: Ferdinand comes back to the present when the sun is down and back to the past when it rises once more. To dumb it down, Ferdinand can only come home when it is night, the rest of the day he'll be busy being teleported across time and space. Hubert wants to applaud Linhardt for connecting the dots so fast, but he reminds himself quickly of how this had been Linhardt's fault in the first place.

The only viable solution they could think of to stop the cycle was for Hubert to bring Ferdinand back with him in the day, thus breaking the chain. Hubert's watch is enchanted to keep working in the past, always showing the present time to help him keep track. Right now he has six hours before sundown, six hours to find Ferdinand so they can come back together, not separately.

With an irritated huff, he sets course for the Black Eagles classroom, recalling a time long ago when Ferdinand had bragged about being the first one there. Hubert had scoffed and called him an excitable little dog. Ferdinand had returned it with his own scathing remark, telling Hubert he would not have it from a guard dog like him.

Hubert finds it ironic that he's back to a time and place where he and Ferdinand had hated each other so vehemently. Ironic considering Hubert is here solely for the purpose of keeping him alive and bringing home. A lot of things had changed since then. A lot of feelings too. 

He finds the classroom empty, makes a mental note to taunt Ferdinand with that when things go back to normal, and carries on. Ferdinand is not at the stables. Nor at the training grounds. Nor the dining halls or any other blasted place Hubert can think to look. He decides against exiting the monastery grounds. An eighteen-year-old Hubert may have had reasons to come and go, but Hubert saw none for a twenty-three-year-old Ferdinand to do the same.

He's struck by irony again. The irony that he knows Ferdinand so well now despite their earlier history.

Five hours later and Hubert has secured every damn inch of the monastery to no avail, nearly getting caught several times by an eagle-eyed Dedue and a perceptive Claude. Frustration fills him as he bring his hands to massage his temples. Think, Hubert, think. Where could Ferdinand be at this time and place? What would the man do after being transported back about a decade into the past?

The moon rises and Hubert sighs before snapping his fingers and disappearing several years into the present.

" _You_ ," he points an agitated finger at a startled Ferdinand when the smoke settles, "are a very difficult man to find."

He's still glaring at the surprised man as Linhardt and Dorothea explains things to him.

* * *

_Twenty and reluctant allies become not-so-reluctant friends. Though he'd sooner take a sword to the chest before holding Ferdinand in that same regard. Twenty and Byleth Eisner enters the picture, stony expression and unreadable eyes. Despite her unpredictability, she does nothing to hinder their plans when she stands next to Edelgard, sword pointed at Rhea, against the church, against the gods. Twenty and things are finally coming to a head and Hubert is gearing himself for the climax and the falling action of the story. Hubert's ready for war when he turns twenty, ready as he'd always been. He's twenty and he knows better now because this time he calls the cloaked stranger out when the sun dips low._

_"Who are you?" Hubert asks, dagger raised. The siege on Garreg Mach happens tomorrow, he cannot afford to die here._

_The cloaked man does not step into the light. "A... friend," he says quietly._

_Then there's an explosion and Hubert is knocked out._

* * *

"You are a very difficult man to read, you know that?" Ferdinand had told him days before the eclipse. "It has been years, yet I still cannot understand you sometimes, Hubert."

Hubert had shrugged. It had always been a goal to stay as vague as possible. Couldn't risk enemies ever predicting his movements or thought processes. Which one would argue was futile now considering the war's been over for two years, but Hubert has never liked taking chances.

"My apologies," he drawls, not looking up from his paperwork. It isn't rude when it's Ferdinand he's talking to. He, more than anyone, knew of Hubert's work ethic. 

He hears Ferdinand sigh as he plops himself onto a chair across Hubert's desk. "Rude. Are we not supposed to be friends?"

And, yes, they are supposed to be friends. Even Hubert cannot deny that now. But there's a clenching in his heart when he hears the word and an insatiable yearning that settles over his chest like a plague.

He's glad Ferdinand does not know him well enough. Not well enough to notice how his eyes always glue themselves to Ferdinand as soon as he enters the same room. Not well enough to notice the tips of Hubert's ears turn pink when they are entirely too close. Not well enough to know his breath catches whenever Ferdinand does something with his hair.

"Are we?" is all he finally manages to get out in his usual sarcastic way.

Ferdinand sighs once more. "What I would give to understand you a little better."

And Hubert had not responded then, but if he had, he'd have said he'd give anything to make sure that never happened.

* * *

_Thirteen and his body is going through changes. Changes he expects, he's not an idiot after all. Puberty's something he's been made well aware of since he was a little boy, waiting to finally see something else when he looked in the mirror. Something besides the pale, lanky boy with sunken eyes and a crooked mouth. He hopes to look better, if only to live up to the standard everyone expects of Edelgard's vassal. Edelgard who Hubert is sure would look pretty no matter what puberty did to her. Edelgard who's laughter is starting to sound genuine again and whose smile made Hubert's heart race. Ah. This was in the books too. Hormonal changes. Craving things like companionship so young. Love. Hubert had seen it as a hindrance then and he sees it as a hindrance now, considering it had just come as a side effect to physical development. And what has love ever done for Hubert? Where has love been in his life?_

_Thirteen and Hubert dismisses love. Thirteen and he locks his blossoming feelings for Edelgard in a box and incinerates the key. Thirteen when a man watches the metaphoric smoke float up into the metaphoric sky and whisper "oh" to himself._

* * *

They dial it back. The year is 1177. A year before Garreg Mach and Hubert's lurking in the imperial palace. He does not find Ferdinand, only gets nearly arrested and chased across Enbarr before snapping back and snapping at Ferdinand for not being there, as if he had had any say in the matter.

Further. 1171. A year after Edelgard's... incident. Back in the von Aegir estate, but this time Duke Aegir is happy and boisterous as he tears down Edelgard's father bit by bit. It makes Hubert so angry that he wants nothing more than to drop his cover and sock the man across the face. He doesn't find Ferdinand there either which makes things worse. 

A step forward this time. 1183 and Hubert doesn't have to have a cover. Simply walks around as the Minister of the Imperial Household. Everyone knows who he is. Three years into the five year battle, you'd be stupid not to. He thinks he's found Ferdinand for a split second, but this Ferdinand knows nothing of an eclipse, of the cruel game of hide-and-seek the universe has subjected him to. No, this Ferdinand only knows that they are going to have a teatime later and Hubert waves goodbye with a heavy heart when they part ways.

Backwards. 1180 and Byleth nearly spots him when he accidentally kicks her bucket of fish as he tries to avoid a drunk Alois. His blood runs cold when she stares in his direction. Invisibility or not, he's always known her vision was better than anyone else's.

Hubert is exhausted. It's been a week of this. A week of one or two hour naps, a quick bite, searching, and coming up empty-handed. Dorothea and Linhardt offer to take his place often, but Hubert always waves them away. Linhardt is the intelligence of the country. Dorothea is Edelgard's wife. He cannot risk either of them.

There's a selfish part of him too that wants to be the one that fixes this. The one that saves Ferdinand from this blasted chain. It makes him feel ashamed to want that. It's still so new to him, wanting things. Wanting people. 

Wanting Ferdinand.

There's a reason he only gets an hour or two of sleep. Night is the only time he gets to see Ferdinand again. The light at the end of the tunnel. The consolation after every failed attempt. Ferdinand never asks him to stay, it goes unspoken. Just a tug on Hubert's sleeve and he lets himself be pulled down on the infirmary bed, meeting Ferdinand's tired eyes and the new paleness to his skin. He eats as much as he can at night, not interfering with the past meant no stealing food in the day. 

He's lost his usual brightness and the fact breaks Hubert's heart. It's been a week of this and he looks so exhausted, hope flickering in his eyes, and fatigue dragging down every single step. He can't sleep at night, too afraid that his awakening would come in the form of an explosion and refusing to waste a single second of being back home, if only for a few hours. 

"You do not look any better," Ferdinand had said when Hubert voiced the thought and Hubert hadn't had it in him to tell the man that that wasn't the point.

Because Ferdinand is bright and beautiful. Ferdinand is full of life and warm and comforting and _everything_. It's alright for Hubert to look the way he does now, it's expected of the dark, brooding Minister of the Imperial Household, but for the sunflower that is the Prime Minister?

A tragic sight.

It's what motivates Hubert to try again everyday and for as long as he needs to.

* * *

_Twenty-one and Ferdinand von Aegir tests him in the most impossible ways. They're already busy fighting a war across the country, yet the man incites battles of the same intensity in meeting rooms, their personal offices, the throne room, in front of Edelgard even, much to her dismay. She pulls Hubert aside and tells him to play nice. Hubert tells her he is otherwise Ferdinand would already be lying dead in a ditch somewhere secret and Edelgard scowls so hard that he takes the words back and obeys. Reluctantly. He pulls aside Ferdinand and tells him it's about time they settle their differences. Ferdinand insults him. Hubert insults him back. But he does not stop. A promise to Edelgard, Hubert doesn't break those. So he asks. And asks. Holds the white flag up and the sensation is entirely foreign to him because Hubert has never had to ask for something. He was never in the place to._

_Twenty-one and Ferdinand von Aegir finally concedes. Twenty-one and they finally become friends. Twenty-one and Hubert lets his guard down ever so slightly only for Ferdinand to wreck it completely with earnestness that is awe-inspiring and optimism that shines bright like the sun. Twenty-one and there's a new glint in Hubert's eyes, something small, still developing, but it's there and it scares him to death._

_Underneath a tree near the terrace where they're having a tea party, the cloaked man notices._

* * *

"Where do you go?"

Ferdinand's sunken eyes rise from his soup. "What?"

"Where do you go?" Hubert repeats himself before forcing food into his mouth. Edelgard's orders. "When you land in a new time, where do you go? You never stay in one place. What is it that you're following?" It's not important to the search, not really, but Hubert wants to know.

Ferdinand is quiet, looking down at his reflection in his bowl contemplatively. A look usually reserved when deciding important decisions, so Hubert assumes this is one, although he could not understand why.

"Somewhere important," Ferdinand finally settles on saying, voice soft. 

Hubert scoffs, a scowl settling onto his features. "What could be more important than a better to chance to go home?"

Ferdinand looks up at him then, eyes boring into Hubert's with a profound intensity Hubert would shy away from if he could.

"You would be surprised."

* * *

_Fifteen and Edelgard takes her with him on a visit to von Aegir estate. He is fifteen when he comes across a boy her age, poring through a book vigorously as he took notes. Hubert's fifteen and has sworn off of love and the like, but his first thought is that the boy is cute. He entertains it for a second before banishing the thought completely. No time for that. No time for anything or anyone besides Edelgard. Edelgard who's alone with her father and Duke Aegir at this very moment. No doubt shaking with anger he knows she holds in on a daily basis. At the end of the hallway, he hears the door to the study open with a click and he takes one last lingering look at the boy before striding to meet his lady._

_Fifteen and Hubert von Vestra fails to meet Ferdinand von Aegir. Fifteen and the cloaked man who'd been watching in the shadows of the estate pulls at his hair and wonders "what if."_

* * *

Hubert clutches at his head. "Something's happening." 

Dorothea, Edelgard, and Linhardt freeze. The mages' stances relaxing in confusion, they'd been gearing to send him back to today's lucky guess. Edelgard steps forward, eyes wide in alarm. "Hubert, are you-"

"My memories," he says simply before realization comes crashing through like a wave.

A man saving him from his burning bedroom when he is four. Orange hair billowing away from the Hresvelg garden. A fallen brooch in a busy marketplace. A presence he'd thought he'd imagined as he left the monastery one day at eighteen. An explosion that knocks him out when he's twenty.

"Where do you go?" Hubert had asked.

"Somewhere important," Ferdinand had answered.

It had been Ferdinand's roundabout way of saying "at your side."

"We need to change course," he tells Dorothea and Linhardt urgently. If Hubert is right about this then he knows exactly when Ferdinand will be. That _fool_ , he'd probably willed himself into those times, hadn't he? Just had to meddle with Hubert's life like that.

Hubert loved him anyway.

The way he addresses them dissuades Linhardt from asking why. "When?" Dorothea questions instead, hope building in her eyes.

Hubert tells them the date and in a flurry of magic, he is gone. Hopefully for the last time.

* * *

_Twenty-four and things have more or less settled down. They nearly have the entirety of Fódlan under control now and things are getting better. The Empire is thriving. Edelgard is thriving. Everyday they are a step closer to the perfect country Edelgard had envisioned. Everyday they are closer to defeating Those Who Slither in The Dark. Hubert can afford to take a break now, although he despises it when he's forced to. Edelgard and Ferdinand aren't having it. They throw him a party for his twenty-fifth birthday anyway and although the guest list is limited to eight people, the preparations are blown out of proportion and Hubert walks into a ballroom with a cake twice his height and decorations that would put every child in Enbarr's parties to shame. Caspar and Petra spar in the middle of a very early dinner, inciting a food fight that causes Byleth to get slapped by a fish. Linhardt and Dorothea get into a heated debate about the best type of make-up, Edelgard cheering for her wife in the sidelines and Bernadetta taking notes down diligently._

_Twenty-five and when Ferdinand bounds up to him asking if he'd enjoyed the party he'd so ardently worked hard to plan, Hubert says yes and means it. Hubert admits he's the happiest he's ever been and even if he cannot take Ferdinand's hand in his, just being by his side is enough._

_Twenty-five and a cloaked figure watches from a hill a considerable distance away and, for the first time, he is not alone. A second figure emerges against the light of the sunset, placing a hand on his shoulder and though the man will startle violently, his eyes will soften at the sight of the second man._

_"You found me," he will say._

_"I found you," the second man will answer._

_Then a snap and they're gone._

* * *

They explode back into the present in a tangle of limbs.

Dorothea, Linhardt, and Edelgard are staring, stunned before the relief eventually sets in and the women are hugging each other and Linhardt just up and drops onto the floor, deciding to _finally_ take a nap. Hubert would like to do that soon too, but that doesn't matter right now.

He's on top of Ferdinand, arms supporting his weight, although it looks like they won't last for long with how hard he's shaking. Ferdinand is back and the sun is up. Ferdinand is back in the present with him normally. Hubert had finally found him.

The man is crying beneath him, sniffling into his sleeve and chest heaving, but there's a big smile on his face. A smile that is bright and beautiful and the glint of life is back in his eyes and it's absolutely _everything_. It's Ferdinand, he'd _found_ Ferdinand.

"You know," Ferdinand begins shakily, a hand reaching up to hold Hubert's cheek, "I think I know you a lot better now, Hubert." 

Hubert snorts. He can't help it. "With all that stalking across time, I'd be surprised if you didn't."

Ferdinand laughs and it's music to his ears. When he stops, he stares up at Hubert with a determined glint in his eyes. "Stop me if you do not want this," he says quietly, another hand resting on Hubert's other cheek.

Hubert shakes his head. "Ferdinand, I believe you've seen enough of me to know that stopping you is the last thing I'd do."

When Ferdinand laughs again, the sound is smothered by a kiss.

**Author's Note:**

> y'all have no idea how happy i am that this didnt get away too much from me if i ended up with another 11k monster like my last installment in this series i wouldve cried,,, anyways i feel like i explained the magic stuff ok?? but if it confuses anyone feel free to ask in the comments!
> 
> that's it for my ferdibert week this year uwu (no day 8 bc free day hehe and im tired,, also i realize i incorporate their memories too much smh gotta branch out,,) writing for them has been so much fun i love this ship a lot and im so glad my stories were enjoyed by quite a lot of people in such a short time!! y'all have no idea how much that means to me TuT i'll finally be going through comments after this so yayay it's been a wild ride so thanks to everyone who read all my contributions or even just this one!!
> 
> kudos and comments appreciated :D peace out loves dont forget to listen to the ferdibert duet today
> 
> [my twitter!](https://twitter.com/trixstarsss)


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